The Buzz Column, Dec. 6

A Buzz reader reacted to the council’s plan to create a new image for the city: “We don’t need to attract more people to Mission Viejo. One can field every type of service, retail store and restaurant in each of the surrounding cities. Our inept city government and clueless city council are the real negative aspects of the Mission Viejo image. No matter how you spin it, dumb is dumb.”

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The consulting firm that was contracted to re-brand Mission Viejo (fix it until it’s broken) is brandStrata of Seal Beach. Regarding the consultant’s plan for a downtown, several years ago, the city contracted with a different consultant who concluded Mission Viejo’s layout isn’t suitable for having a downtown. The consultant back then said the Master Plan’s intent is to decentralize the city, and it’s something that can’t be changed by calling an area “downtown.” To interfere with the rights of private owners at Marguerite and La Paz – forcing remodels in one way or another – would be a remodeled strip mall, not a downtown.

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The only person quoted in the Dec. 7 Saddleback paper about the city’s new image is someone who doesn’t live here. Keith Rattay, a city employee who lives in Irvine, seems to be the one pushing re-branding and re-imaging of Mission Viejo. It might explain why former council members – Susan Withrow and Sherri Butterfield – were afflicted with the same thinking as the current council. Do Mission Viejo residents find it strange that a consultant crafted a new image for the city without input from those who live here?

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Rattay said during the Dec. 3 council meeting that there’s no place in the entire city for a dog park. According to those involved in the ongoing discussion, Rattay doesn’t want a dog park in the logical place next to the animal shelter. Focus has been diverted all over town, with neighbors having to fight off having a dog park in city parks near their homes. Residents successfully prevented a dog park in Alicia Park, and Oso Park is the next target.

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On Dec. 6, Capistrano school district officials held a meeting to discuss changing school boundaries. Public comments lasted more than three hours with many parents objecting to some of the ideas. Sorting things out won’t be easy, but the proposals are at least coming from parents instead of school administrators who have caused turmoil over boundary lines. As the next step toward redrawing boundary lines, proposals will be presented to the board of trustees on Jan. 14, and a public hearing will be held Jan. 23.

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Or. Co. GOP Party Chairman Scott Baugh might be busy trying to keep his name out of embarrassments at the county level, but he still had time to meddle in Mission Viejo’s city business on Dec. 3. According to a comment from the dais, council members received phone calls telling them to select Frank Ury as mayor for 2008. As a pipe dream hatched by Ury’s lobbyist financier, Mission Viejo should have an elected mayor just like Anaheim and become an overpopulated, overdeveloped mess just like Irvine. Can anyone guess who the power club wants as Mission Viejo’s elected mayor? How much cash are they willing to funnel into Ury’s campaign to get him reelected in November 2008?